Elizabeth Layton, called "Grandma" Layton, was an American artist.
14 Facts About Elizabeth Layton
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Elizabeth Layton left college to marry her first husband, Clyde Nichols.
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Elizabeth Layton became an artist in her sixties, when she took a drawing class at Ottawa University in 1977.
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Elizabeth Layton credited this new pursuit with curing her depression and comforting her grief over her son's death in 1976.
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Elizabeth Layton's works are often self-portraits, detailed pencil line drawings, sometimes humorous, with references to political issues such as women's rights and the threat to defund the National Endowment for the Arts over controversial art.
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Elizabeth Layton exhibited her drawings first in Kansas, and later throughout the US.
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In 1992, shortly before she died, Elizabeth Layton was the focus of shows at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art and the Delaware Art Museum.
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Elizabeth Layton did not sell her works, despite demand, but she did donate them for causes that interested her.
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In 1980, Elizabeth Layton was chosen as a "Governor's Artist," a statewide honor in Kansas.
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Elizabeth Layton was named "Distinguished Kansan of the Year" by the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas in 1989.
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Elizabeth Layton was married twice and divorced once; she raised five children.
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Elizabeth Layton experienced depression for much of her life, leading to some psychiatric hospitalizations and multiple rounds of electroconvulsive therapy.
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Elizabeth Layton was survived by her second husband, Glenn F Layton Sr.
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The Elizabeth Layton Center for Hope and Guidance is a mental health clinic in Kansas, named in the artist's memory.